It felt like his painful slog might never end but bolstered by the heartfelt
roars and cheers of 80,000 in the Olympic Stadium, an injured, one-armed
runner from Djibouti, Houssein Omar Hassan, kept battling on to hobble his
way into Paralympic legend.

Paralympic spirit: Houssein Omar Hassan's determination to finish the 1,500m won the respect of a packed Olympic stadiumPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

Finishing in 11 minutess 23.50 seconds, Hassan may have recorded the slowest 1,500m run ever witnessed at a major championship — or any minor championship for that matter.

Yet it did not feel right to give the 35-year-old that ultimate honour for monumental Olympian ineptitude – the treasured animal-inspired nickname. So forget Eddie the Eagle or Eric the Eel. This, it turned out, was nothing to do with incompetence and everything to do with pride, courage and determination, simply to fight through the pain barrier just to complete the course as the only representative of his country at the Games. Houssein the Hero sounded more appropriate.

To start with, the crowd were blissfully unaware of his foot injury as the race in the T46 category, for above or below elbow amputees, unfolded around the man who, without a right arm and running limply round on the spindliest of legs, cut such a fragile figure.

It dawned as Hassan was being lapped for a second time while only on the second circuit that here was an athlete determined to carry on to the bitter end despite being in pain. One athlete from Poland had already pulled out — so at least Houssein could say, actually, he didn’t finish last! — but after the final finisher had crossed the line in 4 min 30.42 sec, he still had two and a half laps left.

Now the crowd suddenly realised here was a man in need of serious help.

Each time he went past a particular block of them, the fans in that section rose as one in the stands to salute his effort. He was travelling at such a snail’s pace by then that it actually looked as if they were all doing a Mexican wave in slow motion.

There were moments when you could have sworn that Houssein was about to call it a day but then he would totter onwards again and, as the runners in subsequent heats had to warm up again with the programme now overrunning, he finally made it to the line almost seven minutes after the previous finisher.

He had effectively received a seven-minute standing ovation and the cheer he received as he completed his ordeal was extraordinary, louder even than the one reserved earlier for Richard Whitehead’s exhilarating 100m gold medal sprint for Britain.

Yet there was no acknowledgement of their support from Houssein. Head down, he shuffled off slowly from the track as if just a little embarrassed by his own performance and when he saw reporters descending on him afterwards to find out all about his story, he looked so horrified that he managed to move away with seemingly more alacrity than he had displayed on the track.

He offered just a short, explanation, mostly in pidgin English, to an official in the bowels of the stadium. He had felt an injury at the beginning of the race, he explained, while pointing to his right foot and gesticulating that it was “very sore”.

With the east African country making its Paralympic debut here and having been the flag bearer at the opening ceremony, Houssein was charged with not letting down his nation. “I thought of stopping,” he said. “But I kept going because I wanted to finish.” Djibouti will be proud of him.